The Daily times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1886-1889, 1887-02-11
WEBSTER'S SPELLER.
EVOLUTION OF THE ONCE P0PU-
LAR "SPELLlNG BOOK"
Noah Webster's Great and Successful
Enterprise-The Fortunes Of Con-
pecticut School Teachers Work-The
Famous Select Fables"

llSnen, ABOUT liiV, IL was PoDopiy =" $50
improvement on its predecessors, for 1t had
great run in both countries. To-day, III
glancing through it, it seems nearly worth
less; and this opinion Of it began TO take
shape towards the end OF the Revolution,
when Joel Barlow probably only expressed
public sentiment in complaining that lads
once logged into it when young are afraid OF
all kinds OF grammar all their days after.
At this time Noah Webster, fresh from Yale
college, was presented with al IS bill OF Con-
tinental currency worth about half that sum
in specie) by his father, and told that he must
strike out for himself To Connecticut col
lege bred lad this was equivalent TO saying,
"Teach school," and teach he did, first in
Hartford and then in Goshen, n. y, and
from practical experience became convinced
of the worthleSsnesS Of Dilworth.
To a native bred Yankee an error is some
thing TO be corrected, and a poor piece OF
work something that needs improving. Web
ster set himself to the task Of reforming the
"New Guide"-a work of no mean proportion
with the lack Of pathological knowledge IN
this country at that time-and after TWO
years of hard study completed his revision,
when he Travelled through the states, en-
deavoring to obtain copyright laws in order
to protect his work Returning to Hartford
with partial success, he next sought pub
Usher, but of course without success, so, with
the aid of a loan from Joel Barlow, he was
driven to the necessity Of taking the whole
risk upon his own shoulders; and Hudson q
Goodwin, printers in Hartford, printed in
1884 5000 copies, taking from the author
bond TO make good any Deficiencies there
might be.
Webster had originally intended TO call his
book "The American Instructor but by the
advice Of DR.. Ezra Stiles, president Of Yale
college, the title was changed to "A Gram
NAUTICAL Institute of the English Language"
and nothing proves the real merit Of the work
so strongly as the fact that for twenty years
it bore that title, and yet lived, though at
the end of that period the name became 1.-The
American Spelling Book, and still later, in
a revised form, "The Elementary Spelling
Book" The book proved a great success;
edition after edition was called for, and sup
planted nearly every book of its kind pub
lshed in this country.
1t was the custom then for authors TO sell to
the printers the right to print editions for a
certain number of years, and accordingly
Webster sold his privilege TO printers in Bos-
ton, Hartford Albany, New York and Phila-
delphia, for transportation was then so diff
cult that none OF these printers could inter
fere with each others sales. The copyright
was soon of great value; in l7S5 the book was
selling at the rate of 500 a week, and in 1890
the sales in a single state were 10000. For
years the author lived on the proceeds from
the speller. while many publishers were coin
ING money out of it, I'm 1917, when the work
was revised one printer gave him $1,000 a
year for his term of copyright, and another
$40, 900 for the privilege of printing editions
for fourteen years BY 1918, 100000 copies
had been sold, and by lS47, 100000, or an
average rate of nearly 100000 copies year,
and from this time on it. is safe TO estimate
the sales at a million copies annually
Each printer varied his editions in particu-
lars to please his own fancy The Phiadel
phia printer "embellished" his with portrait
Of the Father of his Country" and MIR.
Thomas, the great New England printer, not
TO be outdone, Ornamented his with a vile
wood cut Of what purported to be Noah
Webster, Jr., Esq This wood engraving
and the absurd title OF the book were made
for want OF better the points Of attack by
those at enmity with him. Mr.. Grammatical
Institute, 4" "Mr Institutional Genius" Mr..
Squire, Jr., >" were some Of the names applied I
to him. and William Cobbett went so far as
10 draw up a mock will, in which he be
oueathed him six Spanish milled dollars, 10 .
be expended on n new plate of his portrait at .
the head Of his spelling book. that which .
graces it at present being so ugly that it .
scares the children from their lessons; but 7
this legacy is 10 be paid him only on condition /
that he leaves out the title Of Squire at the .
bottom Of said picture, which is extremely
odious in an American school book, and must /
inevitably tend TO corrupt the political prin- .
ciples of the republican babies that behold /
it,"
To all who studied the speller, the part that 4
probably made the greatest impression was
the Select Fables" These were an after
thought Of the author, for they do not appear
in the earliest editions How many have car
ried along. in after life, the moral lessons
taught by The Country Maid and Her Milk
Pal, " The Fox and the Swallow" "The Cat .
and the Rat, THE Fox and the Brambe,7 .
and many other equally sharp examples of .
tfli hOlllSs NiliNh NNiC plD'Abig iuip' 10 'iii
cacious on the ethics as the corrections in .
pronunciation were on the language Of the .
children
The spelling book slowly underwent altera
ations. The printers discovered very soon
that tho title was clumsy, and changed 1t 20
"The American Spelling Book The author
was constantly simplifying and improving,
for although soon occupied in his dictionary,
vet he always seemed 20 feel an especial IN
teres. in his first venture, and well be might,
for almost his whole support was derived .
from the book Others copied his IDEAS, hop
Ing tc obtain share Of the profits, and Us
the century advanced the book was slowly
driven out Of New England, the land Of its
birth. by the improvements in school books,
vet the sales increased steadily, and It found
refuge in the south and west, and even trav- .
eed to England. In revised form il helped .
10 educate the Confederate youth during the
rebellion, and 20 day il can still be found in
schools here and there throughout the
country.
Cooperation in a College.
The faculty Of Princeton college have